


Clash of Wills

by starkind



Series: Three Strong Hearts - A WonderIronBat Collection [8]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Iron Man (Movies), Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)
Genre: Ass-Kicking, BAMF Diana (Wonder Woman), Crossover Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Swordfighting, Swordplay, Tired Tony Stark, competitive Bruce Wayne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29616426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkind/pseuds/starkind
Summary: That time when Bruce should have let it go, Diana should not have let him rile her up, and Tony really should have stayed in bed.
Relationships: Diana (Wonder Woman)/Tony Stark/Bruce Wayne
Series: Three Strong Hearts - A WonderIronBat Collection [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726759
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Clash of Wills

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for yet another whump-ish Bruce fic, but this idea haunted me for weeks, so I caved in. Besides, Bruce probably is just this competitive and thus can stand a bit of ass-kicking from his wife just fine.

Two and a half weeks after their return from Themyscira, Bruce turned to his wife on a Saturday morning, after a joint, early breakfast at Stark Tower. Tony was still asleep after getting home late the night before, after having been overseas on Iron Man business for the past two days.

“I want you to spar with me.”

Diana stopped stirring the foam into her second espresso macchiato and gave him a curious look. “Work out you mean. I’ve been wanting to try out some of your calisthenics moves, so-” He shook his head. “With swords.” She cast him a look between dubious and puzzled. “You don’t have a sword.” His minuscule smirk made her narrow her eyes, her interest piqued. “Bruce Wayne - just what are you up to?”

Bruce swirled the remains of his orange juice before putting the glass to his lips. “I want another chance at studying your fighting style.” Her jaunty grin exposed the dimples on Diana’s cheeks. “My style? Or the Amazonian style?" His smile, however small, was benevolent. “Whatever you’ll give me.” Never taking her eyes off of him, Diana propped her cheek upon a fist. “Is this because of the fight on Themyscira?” He nodded.

“As to not repeat my mistakes.”

His solemn explanation caused Diana to give a little, throaty chuckle. “I hate to burst your bubble, Beloved, but you’d never stand a chance against any Amazon. I’m sorry.” While her voice held no trace of mockery, there was a hint of a tease in her affectionate wink. Bruce put his palms flat on the granite countertop and leaned forward, his stance challenging. “Prove it.” Diana’s expression lost a lot of merriment and became serious.

“You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”

Their eyes darted within each other; confusion and refusal meeting determination and obstinacy.

“I’m asking you to live up to your warrior code, Princess Diana of Themyscira.”

Diana’s eyes narrowed at the edges.

+++

When Tony, clad in a large, fluffy bathrobe, shuffled into the kitchen, on the quest for much-needed caffeine, he almost collided with his husband. Bruce grunted something unintelligible that might have passed as a good morning greeting. Bleary-eyed, Tony blinked after his fast-disappearing figure, only to be passed by his equally determined-looking wife who strode after the Gothamite. “Hey, where are you two going?”

“Sparring.”

With a longing glimpse at the alluring coffee maker, Tony tilted his head back and groaned.

“‘s too early for this.”

+++

Once he joined them at the private gym ten minutes later, fingers curled around the second cup of hot coffee, Diana and Bruce were circling each other on the padded floor of the free-fighting arena. Each of them wore fitted workout clothes and had a longsword in their hands. Tony sat down on the nearby boxing ring, taking another sip and marveling at the sight of his lovers’ shapely physiques.

“Didn’t know you were into swordplay, B.”

While Bruce failed to answer, busy concentrating on warming up his joints and muscles, Diana smirked at Tony. “Neither did I.” She rested her sword against her hip to put her hair up in a tight bun, glimpsing over to see her husband slip on a pair of gloves for a better grip. “Are you really sure you want this, Bruce?” Her voice was less-amicable than before, but it prompted him to cast her a brief smile. “Most definitely.”

He did a complex-looking twirl of his sword before adopting a fighting stance. Their first clash was over in less than three seconds. On instinct, Diana parried his first wave of attacks and kept him at bay, playing defense. Once the pace had picked up and they were standing close, swords interlinked atop their heads, Bruce was frowning. He was slightly out of breath, as opposed to her. “Stop holding back.”

She gave a little push to which they separated with a clink of metal. “Who says I am?” As he was about to thrust upward toward her face, Diana put her left foot forward, stepping slightly off-line to his left, engaging her own blade to deflect his thrust. Still, Bruce kept going, set aside her parry, and brought his point on line. The power and body weight behind his attack eventually caused her to yield, which she did with a proud smile.

“Your technique is more than decent, especially for a man. Enough of this.”

With that, Diana lowered her sword and turned around. Despite her honest praise, a dark cloud had settled over Bruce’s features.

Without warning, he struck again, forcing Diana to swivel around in the nick of time and step back to avoid falling over. Seizing his chance at an opening, Bruce immediately followed up by stepping behind her right leg and placing his sword across hers, driving his blade back and throwing her across his leg. It was a fairly powerful throw and happened so quickly that Diana landed flat on her back, sword slithering away.

Looming above, out of harming range but still keeping her at swords point, Bruce’s expression spoke of disdain.

“Never let down your guard. Not even around me, or Tony.”

“Hey! Objection! I don't have a death wish, you know.”

Neither of his lovers paid any mind at Tony’s feeble attempt to lift the mood. Instead, Diana gritted her teeth at Bruce's taunting voice and stance. With a swift and smooth kick-up jump, she was back on her feet, moving on to roll over a shoulder to reobtain her sword and strike. They clashed hard seconds later, and this time, it did not take long for her to have him in clear defense against the onslaught of her attack.

One ferocious strike of her blade forced him to let go of his sword, and it went flying through the air to clatter to the ground in the corner of the gym. In mid-attack, Diana’s following swivel kick swept Bruce's feet off the ground, and the punch to his midsection sent him flying backward into the padded wall with a loud, dull thud. There, Bruce dropped to the floor, motionless. Alarmed, Tony shot up from his spectator’s place.

“SHIT!”

Diana was quicker than him and knelt down at Bruce’s side. Much to their relief, he was already moving and pushing himself back to a seated position, rubbing and cracking his neck. Bruce then squinted up at the two shocked faces of his lovers, and a satisfied smirk curled his lips.

“Just like that.”

In seconds, Diana’s face twisted with anger.

Without a word, she rose, unclasped the buckle of her sword sheats to let the whole thing drop to the floor with a clatter, and strode past them, slamming the door shut behind her. Tony crossed his arms with a disdained expression. “Well done, Bboy. Well done.” Bruce got to his feet with only the slightest wince and favoring of his lower back. When he made a move to head out as well, Tony’s hand was on his forearm.

“Leave it be. Until the dragon stops spitting fire.”

Giving a deep, exasperated sigh, Tony patted his arm and started pulling him out of the gym.

“Better go get that cleaned up.”

Only then Bruce noticed the metallic tang on his tongue.

+++

Back in the living room with its adjacent kitchen, Diana was pacing furiously. Tony approached her with caution and two pacifying, held-up palms.

“Darl, calm down, okay? He-”

Her dark eyes blazed open fire as she swung around. “How could he?! Doesn’t he know how dangerous and foolish that was?!” She kept on pacing around Tony whenever he stepped into her way, trying to get her to stop.

"Honey-"

“He's crazy! I could have hurt him badly and then what?”

“But you didn’t.”

At the voice of the man in question, they turned their heads towards the doorway and her expression darkened. “You should apologize.” She raised her chin as Bruce stepped up to her, unfazed at the ire blazing back at him. “I’m not sorry for what happened-” Diana took a deep breath, about to bestow her wrath on him in verbal form. Before she could explode, Bruce’s smile became lenient. “-but I apologize for how it happened.”

With that, he clasped her tightly-balled fists and applied a kiss to the back of each hand. Once her anger eventually evaporated, Diana huffed at him, brows still furrowed and eyes holding a wary glint. “Don’t do it again.” Her voice was firm. He inclined his head. “As you wish.” After holding his gaze for the longest time, Diana eventually reached up to touch the tip of a finger against the small cut on his bottom lip.

“Will you show me that calisthenics move? The front lever?”

His eyes turned softer as the corners of his mouth curved upward.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Behind them, a throat got cleared. When they turned around, Tony cast them a flat-out peeved look.

“Can’t we just have a nice, lazy weekend like normal people?”

**Author's Note:**

> I have spent an evening watching longsword fighting videos. I regret nothing! 
> 
> To get an idea of how a sparring session could look like: 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3A-Od7dfp0
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqA9pYqq5OU


End file.
